We didn't leave for Barcelona until late Friday because Mallory, Chana, and Christina took a day trip to Pompeii. Sarah and I stayed behind because we had both been there before so we took the day to sleep in and hang out. Which means I finished watching the 4th season of Dexter while she watched Vampire Diaries.
But soon enough, we were ready to get into a cab and get to the airport. Our flight was delayed about an hour, which got us into Barcelona at about 12:30, and after 1am before we got to our hostel. We found out, sadly enough, that there are no 5 person cabs in Barcelona, only 4. So we had to split up and we were on our way...well only for about a minute before we realized that Sarah and Mallory were in a cab behind us with a flat tire. Our cab driver pulled over to wait, and even after we called Sarah and heard they got into another cab and were already on the way-- our cab driver didn't understand. With some hand motions and a little Italian, we finally conveyed that they were alright and in another cab and we could leave.Thank god, we could finally get some sleep.... you know where this is going don't you?
Right, well got to the hostel, and we soon found out we had to pay an extra 50 euro deposit for our keycards and linens. Then we would also have to change our room the next day. We get all the way up to the 12th floor, try the keycard and it didn't work, then these 3 boys (they were like 15) come out of the room in their boxers see us and try to shut the door, We tried to tell them that it was our room, but they didn't speak French, Italian, Spanish, or English (any of the languages we speak a bit of) soon enough they just shut the door and we had to head down to reception. The Receptionist screwed up and put us in a different room. Finally we could sleep. I looked at my ipod right before I fell asleep, it was 3:45am. What a crazy night.
We woke up the next day at 9:30 attempted to have breakfast (that consisted of dry cereal- the hostel became a pain in the ass) and we were on our way to explore Barcelona for the day. But first- we found an H&M and a Starbucks. Chana bought some clothes and we all got some much needed caffeine. As we walked to the metro stop, we saw our first interesting building of many in Barcelona. The Torre Agbar building. It looks like a giant pickle. There are so many interesting buildings in Barcelona, and this is just one of many. Maybe it is because we have been living in Rome for so long, but seeing so many modern building, and a number of skyscrapers it was just an interesting experience. In Rome, you are surrounding by ancient ruins, you can buildings that have the supports of an Ancient Roman building. In Barcelona, there are so many colors, (The Torre lights up a night, but we got back too late to see it) Near the beach there is a building that looks like there is a metal fish on top. I'm not saying its bad, it's quite a sight to see. Something that definitely screams, you are in Barcelona. And Gaudi owns it. (He's the architect of many of these buildings in Barcelona).
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| Christina and I at Cantalunya |
We got on the metro and headed to Cantalunya. The metro is one of the nicest I've seen, the trains remind me of the Roman ones, but there are a lot more lines and there is even a countdown to the second to the next arrival of a train. It was a very easy system to understand. We got of the metro and we wandering around until we found the street, La Rambla, a big street with a lot of shops and is famous for their flower stalls. We wandered down some side streets and went into some random shops. We didn't really have any clear plan of things to see in Barcelona, and we were already on a tight schedule because we needed to make it back to get ready for Michael Buble.
We wandered to the Cathedral in Barcelona. It was in a pretty cool area, but it was 5 euro to go into the cathedral, and I don't like paying money to go into a church. Offerings, sure every once and a while, but I feel like you should be able to go into a church for free. But I'll move on. There is no time to waste. We did some more shopping, La Rambla was a very busy street and it was a pretty cool place to see. But I think we spent a little too much time in stores that we can go to in the United States, such as H&M and Sephora. But we did need to pick up some essentials (like dresses and make-up...haha) But all of us just enjoy walking around and going into all these different shops. And to be fair, I did buy my make up at Kiko instead of Sephora. But then again, Kiko is an Italian make-up store. But it was way cheaper than buying mascara at Sephora, and even at the markets because those are American brands.
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| This was like the 10th picture...hence my face :) |
Soon enough though, we had to get back on the metro and head back to the hostel to get ready for the concert. It was actually quite funny because in Barcelona, people don't go out to dinner until about 10 (later than even in Italy) and the clubs and bars are empty until after 12:30. So walking out of our hostel in our "going out clothes" at 6pm was pretty funny. I felt like everyone was staring at us. But we go over it- and we headed to Placa de Espanya near where the venue is to find a place to have dinner.
We stopped at the Palau Nacional, which is an art museum now. What we did find really funny is there are a number of escalators going up to the Palau along with stairs. After living in Rome, it was funny to see such a modern touch, outside too, but we took advantage of them nevertheless. Finding a spot to have dinner is always a process that can test my patience- no one can decide specifically what they want, and of course we have to look at the prices of everything. But we finally found a restaurant with Spanish food. The meal was a bit on the expensive side after all was said and done, but we ordered a jug of Sangria and Croquettes (Mallory suggested them, and they were amazing!) We are all also huge fans of Sangria, even Chana said, "I could drink this like juice." haha
We got a little stressed getting to the venue (Palau Sant Jordi, which was an olympic stadium) because we couldn't find the bus stop we needed. I think everyone was just a little too excited and we were worried we would miss the beginning. But we worked it out, and everyone let the little tiff go and we got excited to see Michael Buble! We missed about half of the opening act (Naturally 7) But it was fine, because soon enough Michael Buble was on! He started with the song "Cry Me a River" which you can listen to Here. It was a great choice for an opener! I do have videos, but they will have to wait until I get a chance to have a faster internet connection before they will even load. I'll see what I can do about that. But for now, here is a video someone else made of the concert!
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| I was not this close, it is a picture of the screen, but he is one adorable man |
But he sounded exactly like he does on the CD. He has an amazing voice, and he is so funny! He tried to speak in Spanish, but he ended up speaking more English, but words in Spanish. He talked about how he wears and engagement ring because in Argentina (where his fiancee is from) both wear them- which is actually really cool. He also did a hilarious cover of Billie Jean, he said "When I was 13 I wanted to Michael Jackson, I didn't want to be Frank Sinatra, I had the glove and everything!" Then he covered Twist and Shout because he said Ferris Bueller is his favorite movie. He sang "Home" which is one of my favorites. It starts with, "Another summer day has come and gone away, in Paris and Rome, but I want to go home" We all felt a little home sick during that song, we all kind of longed for the comforts of home, in the way he must have felt when he wrote the song. But when he came out for the encore and sang "Feeling Good" the cover of the George Michael song, on I was sold. I love him so much. He did not play his new song "Hollywood" which was the only thing I was slightly disappointed about. But I totally forgot about it when he came out for the last part of his last song and sang it without a microphone. And I could hear him, we were in an area and you could hear him as clear as day. He is so talented. I was just amazed.
The concert was over too soon it seemed like, but he sang for about two hours. We were all on a concert high. We decided to get off the metro and try to find a bar or a place to just hang out. The metro was crazy crowded because of a Barcelona soccer game. But then it started to rain so we ran into this pita restaurant and decided to just order some Sangria and talk about how amazing the concert was. We toasted to Michael Buble and his Fiancee because she is such a lucky bitch. I added to the toast by saying, "To lucky bitches, because hopefully someday we'll be one." I wrote that quote down in my little travel book.
We wandered around all night basically, we found a margarita bar, where oddly enough I had a cosmo which made me miss my friends because we always talk about getting cosmos like sex and the city. So I had Christina take a picture of me and I tagged all my friends. We were up for the time change that night. Europe changes time for Daylight Savings about a week before the US, so I was looking at my ipod and all of sudden it changed from 3am to 2am. We stayed out for about another hour walking around before it got too cold. So we got home, for all intents and purposes was 4:30, a perfect night out in Barcelona. If I do say so myself.
The next day surprising I was up by 8:30, we headed to Starbucks to try to figure out where to spend our last hours in Barcelona before our flight left at 7pm. We took the metro to the Sagrada Familia a really famous church, that was started in 1886 by Gaudi and it is not expected to be finished until 2026. It was the most interesting church I have ever seen. It is literally inexplicable. I would have loved to go in, but the line was on par with the line for the Vatican Museum. It wrapped all around the church. I would have loved to have my Art History professor there tell me all about it. I have never been so fascinated by a church. It was so weird! I guess it has become a thing like it will never be finished, a work of art that will never be completed- always a work in progress. We talked about this in my philosophy class, and how artists are such perfectionists that they do not see their works as ever being done, and they must be continued even if the artist dies. So when you think of it that way, you don't really care that there are cranes and scaffolding all over the church, it's just a masterpiece that is always changing.
We left the Sagrada Familia and headed towards the beach. It was the one place that I really wanted to see, when you think Barcelona, you think the beach and amazing nightlife. It was so beautiful. There were more Gaudi buildings that always stand out. It was a little chilly- but the sky was blue and it was plenty warm for us. We walked on the beach and there were huge waves crashing onto the beach and over the piers. We sat looking at the sea for a good hour just talking and enjoying the warm weather. I kept thinking of Spain and knowing that I'm in Barcelona, Spain but still feeling like it was a dream. I remember writing down Spain on my numerous lists of places I wanted to see and this semester I have crossed off so many.
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| L to R Christina, Sarah, Chana, Mallory, Me |
We stopped at a restaurant for a quick lunch, Chana and Mallory got Paella (which is very good) and honestly I have no idea what I got, but it was really good. I also tried Mussels, which were actually amazing. The sauce was a little spicy, but they didn't taste fishy at all.
We ran back to the hostel and caught a regional metro train to the airport. Our flight was delayed because the fuel pumps under the airport broke, so we had to wait for a fuel truck. We were actually pretty lucky though- because if we had been stuck any more, the captain said that we would have be stuck because there were storms coming in on our route. We got back to Rome around 9:30pm. We grabbed a cab, and as we were leaving the airport, Haven't Met You Yet was on the radio. We took that as a sign, and the cab driver was laughing at us because we were singing. He was a younger guy and asked us if we were going to the disco that night. Of course we weren't going, but that didn't stop him from putting on House Music after the song. He was driving about 180 km/hr so about 100 mph on the freeway. Let's just say we were all very happy to get out of that cab.
We ordered pizza once we got back to J-Force, and I was in bed a few hours later. It's funny how this place has become home. It gives us a change to recharge our batteries after such hectic weekends of traveling!
This week I have one big Art in Rome test and 2 papers. So it's going to be busy week. Saturday I am taking a day trip to Montecassino. Then next weekend is Tuscany! I still have about a month and a half here, and I'm going to make the most of it!
Ciao Bella
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